An interesting post, at Pish Tosh, about blogging as a form of literature of domestic chaos. Housework, she notes that Shapiro writes in a history of housewifery in the 50s, housework “evaporates and leaves no trace” – unless you write about it.
Definitely one of the appeals of blogging. You read me, therefore I am. No, an unread blog is still a blog. OK: I can find my old posts on Google, therefore I was. Nah. And I’m too sleepy to figure it out. There’s something there though, both about blogging and about personal writing and about the public and personal and the private and the political.
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Scott
I like the idea of blogging as housekeeping of the mind. I think it makes sense in some cases — yours for instance. You often blog as you’re writing something else — cooking, or refining an idea you’ve been playing with for some time — tidying.
Jill
Oh, yes, blogging as cooking, tasting different ingredients and seeing whether they’ll work together, shopping around for new foods that might work well… Tidying? Well… see, that sounds BORING. I’m not going for that…
achilleas
Yeah, but can eponymus blogging be an honest mind housekeeping device? Is there
not always a fear of being overexposed?
Moreover i’m not sure an unread blog is still a blog.
Jill
Oh, goodness, I don’t think housekeeping needs to be HONEST! Housekeeping’s about keeping your life and home organised enough that YOU are happy, whatever that entails. I think.
And I know about the unread blog, I thought about that when I wrote it, and I may even have written before that a blog with no readers isn’t a blog. I guess I mean that a blog’s a blog whether it has two readers or two hundred readers, but well, really I don’t want to get into defining the thing. I’m really tired of definitions…
achilleas
The more i think about it the more i conclude that i do use my blog as a housekeeping device. Sometimes i write things there as a means of not forgetting about them without worrying about readers. But since the blog will be read and interpreted by people i know, i have to be careful with sensitive material (the word `honest’ was not really a success i guess).
Nomatter how you’d call the thing, if they told you that nobody is going to read it, would you keep on posting? (i think i would)
Jill
Oh, I think I would. When I’m away from my blog (as in seriously away and offline for a while) I keep a paper blog in a very different way to the way I used to write a diary. Nobody reads that and it’s still something I want to do.
I guess my paper diary’s a bit more juicy, actually…